I have been making up all my own magic items for a while. They are more potent than typical 4E magic items (I think they would count as Rares).
I make a lot of little changes to things here and there. Some examples:
One player made a Dwarven Rogue. I let him use a Handaxe for Sneak Attack. Another player made a Swordmage. I let him use a "Longhammer" (as he called it) for his implement (stats as a regular warhammer).
I make occasional big changes too. For example, one player made a Warpriest of Avandra, and I made up all his features and powers.
Overall, I have found 4E great for making changes, both big and small.
Yes, I have tailored a few magic items, but not really a lot. It has more to do with tying an item to a story other than anything else. I´m curious to know about your magic items, can you show some examples?
Sure!
Rage Drake Scale Armor: Resist 1 all, make saving throws vs fear effects at the start of your turn (and at the end), Rage (when you kill something you can make an immediate charge, but then you grant combat advantage).
Stoneheart Belt: Resist 1 slashing/piercing/blunt, +2 to Endurance checks, carrying capacity as if your Strength is 4 points higher, Feat of Strength 1/day (can be anything you can think of, default is +5 to a melee damage roll).
Ring of Second Life: +5 bonus to death saving throws, +1 healing surge, resist 5 necrotic, Daily power (spend a surge to gain temp hp equal to your bloodied value, you are dazed when they are gone).
Elemental Bracers: +1d6 on a crit, +1d6 1/encounter, +1d6 and additional effect 1/day. All damage is of the element appropriate to the bracers. Additional Effect: Acid (1d6 acid damage to all enemies adjacent to the target), fire (ongoing 3 fire damage), lightning (1d6 lightning damage to another target within 10 squares), cold (target is restrained).
I allow and encourage widespread use of alchemical and wonderous items but for magical equipment, I restrict it severely, giving out 1-2 per character. I also give each character an artifact of some kind at different points in the story though and each comes with a modified concordance system, personalities, goals, history, etc. which I've used to great success in guiding players to progress the story without having to pull too hard on the reigns.
I I also use inherent item bonuses, free expertise and defenses.
You are the second person that gives free weapon expertise and superior defenses feats, interesting. I guess mexrage does the same thing. ..."window.parent.tinyMCE.get('post_content').onLoad.dispatch();" contenteditable="true" />
I have been making up all my own magic items for a while. They are more potent than typical 4E magic items (I think they would count as Rares).
I make a lot of little changes to things here and there. Some examples:
One player made a Dwarven Rogue. I let him use a Handaxe for Sneak Attack. Another player made a Swordmage. I let him use a "Longhammer" (as he called it) for his implement (stats as a regular warhammer).
I make occasional big changes too. For example, one player made a Warpriest of Avandra, and I made up all his features and powers.
Overall, I have found 4E great for making changes, both big and small.
Yes, I have tailored a few magic items, but not really a lot. It has more to do with tying an item to a story other than anything else. I´m curious to know about your magic items, can you show some examples?
Sure!
Rage Drake Scale Armor: Resist 1 all, make saving throws vs fear effects at the start of your turn (and at the end), Rage (when you kill something you can make an immediate charge, but then you grant combat advantage).
Stoneheart Belt: Resist 1 slashing/piercing/blunt, +2 to Endurance checks, carrying capacity as if your Strength is 4 points higher, Feat of Strength 1/day (can be anything you can think of, default is +5 to a melee damage roll).
Ring of Second Life: +5 bonus to death saving throws, +1 healing surge, resist 5 necrotic, Daily power (spend a surge to gain temp hp equal to your bloodied value, you are dazed when they are gone).
Elemental Bracers: +1d6 on a crit, +1d6 1/encounter, +1d6 and additional effect 1/day. All damage is of the element appropriate to the bracers. Additional Effect: Acid (1d6 acid damage to all enemies adjacent to the target), fire (ongoing 3 fire damage), lightning (1d6 lightning damage to another target within 10 squares), cold (target is restrained).
Cool!
I notice one item is resist 1 slashing/piercing/bludgeoning. How do you use this damage types on your game? Its not in 4E as far as I´m aware, did I miss something?
Talking about resistance, seeing in Mordenkainen´s book, and they tried to add a few properties to armor like durable and tough, they where scratching the surface of DR with this options, have any of you guys ever tried to go further with this idea? I mean it´s nice to have durable 2 or 3, but it´s not really making a big difference in high levels. on the other hand, the game math wasn't made to support higher levels of DR... So in my mind DR is already represented by your high armor class score, every time you don´t get hit, you are receiving damage reduction... So I decided, just leave it alone, but curious to know if anybody has ever used it or somewhat tweaked it.
I give the normal Expertise Feat for free [Weapon Expertise (Spear) instead of Spear Expertise], Improved Defenses for free.
Currently working on making a Dex based defender. Check it out here Spoiler:Show
Need a few pre-generated characters for a one-shot you are running? Want to get a baseline for what an effective build for a class you aren't familiar with? Check out the Pregen thread here If ever you are interested what it sounds like to be at my table check out my blog and podcast here Also, I've recently done an episode on "Refluffing". You can check that out here
I play mostly RAW but have made a few changes along the way :
1) Rituals are only usable by spellcasters and depending on the key skill of each ritual not usable by all spellcasters. 2) Raising from the dead can only be performed in the sacred grounds of a temple by an NPC (PC don't have acces to this ritual). It is not automatic. The mecanic varies depending on the deity of the temple and the deity the character to be raised worshiped in life. 3) I use a houserule for non-lethal damage (In my campaign you do not have a choice when droping a creature to 0 hit points whether to let live or not - some keyword and some weapons cannot be used to inflict non-lethal damage so it's a kill if you use them to reduce a creature to 0 hit points...so players have to make serious choices when they want to capture enemies). 4) I use classes/races restrictions (even "builds" restrictions) depending on the region of the campagin setting my group plays in. 5) I designed additional powers for clerics depending on the deity worshiped to make them more specialized. This results in clerics having access to more powers than other classes but this seems coherent for characters who are infused by the seemingly most powerful beings in the cosmos.
Yes, I have tailored a few magic items, but not really a lot. It has more to do with tying an item to a story other than anything else. I´m curious to know about your magic items, can you show some examples?
Sure!
Rage Drake Scale Armor: Resist 1 all, make saving throws vs fear effects at the start of your turn (and at the end), Rage (when you kill something you can make an immediate charge, but then you grant combat advantage).
Stoneheart Belt: Resist 1 slashing/piercing/blunt, +2 to Endurance checks, carrying capacity as if your Strength is 4 points higher, Feat of Strength 1/day (can be anything you can think of, default is +5 to a melee damage roll).
Ring of Second Life: +5 bonus to death saving throws, +1 healing surge, resist 5 necrotic, Daily power (spend a surge to gain temp hp equal to your bloodied value, you are dazed when they are gone).
Elemental Bracers: +1d6 on a crit, +1d6 1/encounter, +1d6 and additional effect 1/day. All damage is of the element appropriate to the bracers. Additional Effect: Acid (1d6 acid damage to all enemies adjacent to the target), fire (ongoing 3 fire damage), lightning (1d6 lightning damage to another target within 10 squares), cold (target is restrained).
Cool!
I notice one item is resist 1 slashing/piercing/bludgeoning. How do you use this damage types on your game? Its not in 4E as far as I´m aware, did I miss something?
Oops, I forgot to mention that before: I brought back damage types for non-magical attacks. Really it is for flavor more than anything, but occasionally it gives a benefit (like skeletons taking extra damage from blunt attacks, or zombies taking extra damage from slashing) or hindrance (skeletons taking less damage from piercing).
Yes, I have tailored a few magic items, but not really a lot. It has more to do with tying an item to a story other than anything else. I´m curious to know about your magic items, can you show some examples?
Sure!
Rage Drake Scale Armor: Resist 1 all, make saving throws vs fear effects at the start of your turn (and at the end), Rage (when you kill something you can make an immediate charge, but then you grant combat advantage).
Stoneheart Belt: Resist 1 slashing/piercing/blunt, +2 to Endurance checks, carrying capacity as if your Strength is 4 points higher, Feat of Strength 1/day (can be anything you can think of, default is +5 to a melee damage roll).
Ring of Second Life: +5 bonus to death saving throws, +1 healing surge, resist 5 necrotic, Daily power (spend a surge to gain temp hp equal to your bloodied value, you are dazed when they are gone).
Elemental Bracers: +1d6 on a crit, +1d6 1/encounter, +1d6 and additional effect 1/day. All damage is of the element appropriate to the bracers. Additional Effect: Acid (1d6 acid damage to all enemies adjacent to the target), fire (ongoing 3 fire damage), lightning (1d6 lightning damage to another target within 10 squares), cold (target is restrained).
Cool!
I notice one item is resist 1 slashing/piercing/bludgeoning. How do you use this damage types on your game? Its not in 4E as far as I´m aware, did I miss something?
Oops, I forgot to mention that before: I brought back damage types for non-magical attacks. Really it is for flavor more than anything, but occasionally it gives a benefit (like skeletons taking extra damage from blunt attacks, or zombies taking extra damage from slashing) or hindrance (skeletons taking less damage from piercing).
Exactly, it´s pretty nice... I was very inclined to do it too, but didn't out of pure laziness...and you use it against armor types too?
3: All Arms slot items provide a +1/2/3 item bonus to damage rolls. Now, you actually have a meaningful choice between IAoP and everything else, and non-melee/ranged/staff users have a chance to get on the IBD train.
4: No XP. Levelling done when appropriate, usually once every 3 sessions.
5: No skill lists.
6: Proper scaling for all non-weapon/implement powers. That means +3/6/9 vs NAD, or +4/8/12 (I think that's the right maths) vs AC.
Plus a whole mess of other redesign stuff too detailed to go into here - but those are the key points.
I'm about to start up a new campaign and I'm definitely modifying the rules. For the most part, I'm following what thespaceinvader is doing with free expertise and improved defenses. For early levels, I'm giving the players an extra encounter power and 2 uses of encounter attack powers. That way they can use either attack twice or both in the sameenocunter, to avoid some of the at-will grind of early levels. This will likely go away mid-late heroic.
Even though we're palying in Eberron, where magic is all over, the real powerful stuff is rare. I dislike the magic item arms race, so I'm working it so the weapons and items they do have will get more powerful as they level up, increasing the bonus and the ability to stack properties or powers, much like how Artifacts get more powerful at higher concordance.
I'm also goign to disallow Immediate Interrupt attacks, except those that are used as part of a Defender's mark mechanic. However, Immediate Reactions are fine. However, if the palyers groan or complain, I'll keep them in. I just don't care for off-turn attacks all that much, I think it really slows down combat.
I'm all about giving out extra flavor feats, like ones that would rearly get picked, but are otherwise good to help flesh out the character concept. I'm re-doing Dragonmarks a little- The only people who can learn the rituals listed in the feat are those with the Mark, or part of the House. I'll also add on to the feats to give them more oomph as they level up. Otherwise, Rituals get the free treatment much like others have listed. Martial versiosn of Rituals are available for everyone to use, and free or surge based.
We're having Session Zero this Sunday, and I'm offering some homebrew feats and classes- like finishing up the Sentinel Seasons, with different Animal Companions, and maybe even swapping animal companions. Beastmaster Rangers companions follow the rules for Fey Beast and Sentinel Companion. Introducing a Shardgun (hand crossbow with a d8 damage really), and letting Swordmages use any type of weapon, not just blades.
4e is pretty easy to pick up and learn, but there's a lot of changes that can be made to make it flow better, but it works out of the box pretty dang well too.
Oops, I forgot to mention that before: I brought back damage types for non-magical attacks. Really it is for flavor more than anything, but occasionally it gives a benefit (like skeletons taking extra damage from blunt attacks, or zombies taking extra damage from slashing) or hindrance (skeletons taking less damage from piercing).
Exactly, it´s pretty nice... I was very inclined to do it too, but didn't out of pure laziness...and you use it against armor types too?
Nah, I don't get that fancy. But certainly you could do it if you wanted.
Also, is it just me or have things on this forum gotten a lot more civil lately? Much more honest and open trading back and forth of ideas between people. I like it.
